Wreck It Ralph: The champion trio vying for Dustin Martin’s crown as the undisputed king of finals

Patrick Dangerfield and Marcus Bontempelli have some brilliant finals in their resumes but their most recent outings were disappointing. Who can do a Dusty in 2021?

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA – JULY 25: Patrick Dangerfield of the Cats kicks the ball during the 2021 AFL Round 19 match between the Geelong Cats and the Richmond Tigers at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on July 25, 2021 in Melbourne, Australia. (Photo by Michael Willson/AFL Photos via Getty Images)

The race to be bold and controversial and clickable means the media is desperate to anoint a new GOAT even while the current one is still so obviously atop the AFL’s pedestal.

Marcus Bontempelli might end up winning the Brownlow Medal this season but the suggestion he is footy’s best current player is astonishingly premature.

A quick reminder — Dustin Martin hasn’t just won three Norm Smith medals, he has utterly dominated three finals series in Richmond’s four-season dynasty.

Like the breakthrough 2017 preliminary final as he broke Greater Western Sydney hearts with three late goals and a remarkable 13 score involvements.

Or his scintillating 6.1 in the 2019 qualifying final against Brisbane before he torched the Cats in the prelim the following week.

Or last year’s two goals, two direct score assists and six score involvements in the club’s six-goal winning score in the preliminary final against Port Adelaide.

Lance Franklin, Marcus Bontempelli and Patrick Dangerfield all have legendary finals moments under their belt as future Australian football Hall of Famers.

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Can Lance Franklin reach the heights of 2013 when the Hawks won the flag?

But for all three players, their most recent finals memories would be tainted by regret over injury or lack of impact.

This year — footy gods willing — all three seem perfectly poised to hit September full of the kind of momentum that establishes their place in the footy pantheon, or in Franklin’s case hasten his rise to Legend status.

To be there on the day that Franklin kicked that myth-making finals-winning goal (one of seven) against Adelaide in 2007 was to know a star was born.

But for all his heroics — eight goals in a qualifying final against the Dogs, 12 goals in the 2014 finals series for Sydney — his body hasn’t let him thrive in September since kicking four goals in that losing 2014 Grand Final.

In 2015 he missed the finals as his mental health took priority.

In the 2016 Grand Final an early ankle injury requiring painkilling injections dulled his impact (one goal, 16 touches), in the 2017 semi-final he carried a heavily strapped thigh as Harry Taylor kept him to 0.3, in the 2018 elimination final as Sydney was routed he was restricted by Phil Davis to eight touches and a solitary point.

Patrick Dangerfield kicked four goals against Franklin in that 2017 semi-final but in last year’s Grand Final, battling secret and serious groin issues, he was kept to 12 possessions and a goal as the ball went where he wasn’t.

Across 20 finals he has had more than his share of magical moments but also times he has been harried into turnovers and clangers by superior opponents.

Marcus Bontempelli should be a Norm Smith medallist already after he capped two exceptional 2016 finals (he was quiet against West Coast) with 22 touches, 14 kicks at 100 per cent efficiency, 515m gained, six clearances, seven tackles and five hitouts to advantage in the Grand Final against Sydney.

Marcus Bontempelli will be desperate to repeat his deeds during the 2016 finals campaign.

But he was out-and-out mauled by the Giants in the 2019 finals series (14 possessions, his third-worst game of the year).

And against St Kilda in last year’s elimination final he had just 69 SuperCoach points — his 20 possessions let down by 42 per cent kicking efficiency with some outright clangers and very little impact on the match.

Finals are just bloody hard to play well in consistently — full of sudden momentum swings, the intensity and speed seemingly at fast-forward, games that come down to a handful of decisive moments.

But if Bontempelli finds the calm to rise to those 2016 levels he will, at 25, have found the same level as Luke Hodge and Dusty in rarefied air.

The beauty of this campaign for all three players is they don’t need to put the superman cape on.

Franklin doesn’t need to kick a bag alongside Isaac Heeney, Tom Papley and the emerging Errol Gulden, while Bontempelli has Adam Treloar and Josh Dunkley returning as his wingmen.

Dangerfield will push forward and play in an astonishingly talented forward line boasting Tom Hawkins, Jeremy Cameron, Esava Ratugolea, Gary Rohan, Brad Close, Gryan Miers and Zach Tuohy.

Patrick Dangerfield played hurt in the 2020 Grand Final.

As Dusty recovers from injury on the Gold Coast he exits the finals stage for this season and clears the path for Christian Petracca or Charlie Dixon or Joe Daniher to make their mark.

“Sometimes the greats are just too good,” said Dangerfield of Martin’s Grand Final performance last year.

“Sometimes you have to take your hat off and go, ‘Too good’.”

Those groin issues healed and his torn ankle fully recovered, Dangerfield finally gets his chance at the legacy-defining premiership without the pesky intervention of the greatest finals player of the modern era.